Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Politics: What's the big deal?

First off, I wasn't aware of the existence of "Sufism Reoriented", much less that it had a recognizable symbol that could be placed on a "Headstone, standard issue, DoD, One Each". In light of this factoid, the problem faced by the families of dead veterans who professed to be Wiccans is a little baffling. What's the big deal about putting the pentacle on their tombsones?

Look, if a worshipper of the Great Pumpkin goes to to the Big Pumpkin Patch In The Sky while fighting for your right to go to whatever church you want to, or none at all, then don't disrespect his sacrifice. Just shut up, be a mensch, and put the friggin' Pumpkin on his headstone like he wanted, okay?

Well, you've got morons like faux-libertarian Bob Barr claiming Wiccans should not be allowed to serve at all (which, to me, just seems like it would lead to an upsurge in conversions in the event of a draft).

For that matter, if a Satanist (not a Wiccan) serves with honor and is killed in the line of duty, why should their faith not be honored? No real logic to it at all. Then again, nothing involving religion goes anywhere near logic, so why should I be surprised?

(Also, assuming this link is accurate, Satanism is recognized by the US Army as distinct from Wicca: http://www.churchofsatan.com/Pages/ChaplainsHandbook.html)

atheism's had a logo-problem since day one; the explanation for the bizarre atom thingy is convoluted, but not as strange as the explanations for most every other symbol anybody's suggested to replace it so far.

(it's all about how us godless heathens don't believe in anything other than this here material world, see, and... actually, we're not really the only ones who think like that. and not all of us do, anyway. like i said, we've got an image problem.)

but the explanation(s) for why some bureaucratic jackass is having a snit about the wiccan pentacle? blows our mere atheist convolutedness right out of the water, i say.

What part of "Do to others what you would want them to do to you" is so freaking hard to understand, people?

You call it the Golden Rule, but have done your damnedest to tarnish it every time you turn around.

If you want the glorious privilege of living in a free society, where you have liberty to proclaim your religious belief to every passing person, guess what? You have to give that exact same privilege to people around you.

Oh, you don't agree with their belief? Guess what? They don't agree with yours, either ... and your God told you to treat them the way you'd like to be treated yourself if you were in their shoes.

You want to take money from your neighbors to decorate your child's tomb with the symbol of your child's faith? Then don't squawk when your neighbor tries to do the exact same thing for their child and their child's faith.

If, by your lights, it is immoral for them to spend your tax dollars on religious symbols you consider blasphemous, guess what? It is just as immoral for you to spend their tax dollars on religious symbols they consider blasphemous.

"Do to others what you would want them to do to you."

Follow it. Or quit bragging about your faith, because you demonstrate that your faith is a big, fat, damnable lie every time you open your mouth.

(Paraphrasing Michael Scott Earl here)"Pick a faith (or lack of faith) you're comfortable with and go with it. But no matter which one you pick, the all the rest of the faiths are convinced you're bound strait for Hell."

I notice these "X-tians" weren't so fussy about a Wiccan's faith when (s)he was dying for theirs.

Sorry to intrude on all the Christian bashing going on, but anyone ever think this is just a fault of large bureaucracies in general?

What if someone wanted to put his own custom design on the stone (say created his own religion)? A small outfit could easily accomodate any custom artwork requested, but in mass production that becomes more difficult. It may not have anything to do with religion at all, it could simply be about insufficient numbers to make their priority list.